One year ago, Giannis Antetokounmpo was toiling for Filathlitikos of Greece’s second division, helping the team move into first place with a blowout win over Lavrio on his team’s homecourt.

That would be the Zografou Indoor Hall, an arena that resembles a mid-size American high-school basketball gym. Antetokounmpo had a good game—16 points and seven rebounds—and, a month before his 18th birthday and with a Spanish League contract on the horizon, things were looking up.

Giannis Antetokounmpo (AP Photo)

Antetokounmpo had little way of knowing just how far up things would be looking, no way to possibly guess he would, just a year later, be stretched out in front of a locker at the Boston Garden.

“No. No. No,” he said on Friday night, bearing a huge grin. “Let me tell you the truth: No. I did not think I would be in the NBA, it was just a dream. How could I think this would happen? And happen now? But I am here now. So I am happy.”

He is hardly in happy-to-be-here mode. Not only is Antetokounmpo—the Greek Freak as he is known, for his ballhandling and passing ability at 6-9—in a Bucks uniform these days, he is actually seeing floor time here early in the season, having played in all three of Milwaukee’s games, including 17 minutes in a loss to Toronto on Sunday.

This has been part of the Bucks’ strategy with Antetokounmpo all along.

At draft time, the prevailing feeling was that Antetokounmpo was so raw the team drafting him would have to wait two or even three years before he was ready to contribute, because he had only played such low level basketball in Europe.

Several teams passed on Antetokounmpo not because they were unwilling to wait for him to develop, though, but because he wanted to develop in the NBA. He made clear to teams considering picking him that he was not going to be drafted and stashed overseas.

The Bucks have already done him one better. They agreed to keep him on the roster when they used the 16th pick to draft him in June, and they have even kept him with the NBA club, rather than sending him to the D-League. The hope was that coach Larry Drew could find favorable matchups as much as possible, deploying Antetokounmpo in short bursts to give him experience and keep his confidence high.

“He is going against the best in the world,” Drew said. “What better way to learn than going against the best? He is a kid that, first of all, he doesn’t shy away from playing against top-level competition. When you think about it, 18 years old at this level, there has to be a level of excitement, a little level of nervousness. But he doesn’t show it. If it is, he doesn’t show it.

"We feel just allowing him to play a few minutes and to try to live with some of his mistakes, I think it will develop his growth much more than to have him playing in the D-League. Not to say that never can happen, but right now, that is where we are.”

In fact, it could be said that Antetokounmpo is a little ahead of schedule, even his own schedule. He was expecting to play very limited minutes, and knew he would have to earn his way to more playing time. But that time has come faster than he expected—he played five minutes in his debut, then 12 minutes in his second game before the 17 minutes on Sunday.

“For sure I would like to play here and not D-League,” Antetokounmpo said. “If I go into the D-League and play 30 minutes, that is not for me. I don’t know what it would do. If I play here, I go on the court for six minutes, the next game, I play seven. Then maybe nine. I will be happy. Then when I reach 10, 15, I believe for a 18-year-old guy, who has only played in second division in Greece, I believe 12, 15 minutes on an NBA team is nice. So I want to stay here and month by month, I get better, I play more, I can hit my maximum.”

That is still a long way away—when he is on the floor, as athletic and obviously gifted as Antetokounmpo is, it is clear that his mindset is still to avoid mistakes, rather than to assert his will on a game.

But Drew and the Bucks are finding it more and more difficult not to include Antetokounmpo in the rotation. That is not to say he is a 17-minutes-per-game player, but for a team whose starters have looked lifeless in the early going, the sheer energy and enthusiasm Antetokounmpo brings is much-needed.

“As a big brother to him, he is fun to be around and it takes me back,” teammate Caron Butler said. “I got a daughter who is 18 years old, so I look at him more like a son. His spirit is always great, he looks at this and thinks there is nothing he can’t do or be.”

For now, he will settle for being an NBA rotation player, something he could not have imagined a year ago.

“I believe in myself,” Antetokounmpo said. “I believe that if coach trusts me, too, I will be positive for the team, I will do something right for the team. That is what I want to do. I just came here in the NBA. I am 18 years old. It’s pretty good, to be here, for 18, right?”